ARCADIA, Calif. - The Santa Anita winter meet was once a haven for any number of first-class East Coast outfits. Trainers like Hirsch Jacobs, Jim Maloney, Eddie Neloy, Pancho Martin, Angel Penna, David Whiteley, Sylvester Veitch, William Preston King, and Evan Shipman Jackson would set up shop for the season and make their presence felt, giving the locals a run for their money and fans a chance to gauge Eastern form. At the very least, they had real cool names.

ARCADIA, Calif. - As far as John Henry is concerned, Bernard Baruch got it right when he said, "To me, old age is 15 years older than I am."

True to the sentiment, John Henry has lived in outright defiance of the normal life expectancies of the typical Thoroughbred, just as he ignored his age as a racehorse to become Horse of the Year when he was 6, and then again at 9. For those keeping track, John Henry is 31, reaching that particular milestone on Thursday, March 9, at home in the Hall of Champions of Lexington's Kentucky Horse Park.

TUCSON, Ariz. - Ideas in horse racing, as in most endeavors, come in two basic flavors: good and bad. In recent days the sport tasted a few scoops of each.

In California, the racing board approved, subject to public comment ending April 10, uncoupling of horses racing under common ownership. Bad flavor, bad idea. It makes little sense to make loud noise about integrity and late administration of Salix, and then uncouple horses owned by one owner in overnights.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Dennis O'Neill, tall and lean, his shoulders hunched inside a loose green sweatshirt, was standing on the sloping bank of the main track, just outside the Santa Anita winner's circle, enjoying a view that included trainer Doug O'Neill, assistant trainer Leandro Mora, jockey Corey Nakatani, Santa Anita Handicap winner Lava Man, and a garland of victory flowers. A crowd of nearly 50,000 was bearing loud witness from the stands.

ARCADIA, Calif. - It is difficult to find a racing angle to any of the movies up for Best Picture at Sunday's presentation of the Academy Awards. Neither Truman Capote nor Ed Murrow were exactly racetrack regulars, while both "Crash" and "Munich" deal with issues that seem a far cry from the world of "Guys and Dolls."

In fact, the only horses seen onscreen among the top five films were the highly tolerant, non-judgmental sheep-herding ponies ridden by Ennis and Jack in "Brokeback Mountain."

NEW YORK - Six years into a new millennium, Thoroughbred racing faces a host of challenges that can be addressed only with significant and expensive capital investments. Whether those investments are made will go a long way toward determining whether the game will thrive in the 21st century or continue to fall even father behind the other gambling and entertainment industries with which it competes.

ARCADIA, Calif. - As the flagship racetrack of a company that lost $105 million in 2005 - according to an "earnings" report released this week - Santa Anita Park has a right to be down in the dumps. Magna Entertainment Corp. continues to bleed maple-leaf red, a situation that can't last much longer without either a dramatic turnaround in business or some kind of traumatic upheaval among its holdings.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Through the years, Santa Anita Park managements have been appropriately stingy in the naming of races for people of note. In fact, there are only three such events: the Strub Stakes after the track's founding family, the Frank E. Kilroe Mile after the legendary director of racing, and the Baldwin Stakes after the California pioneer who first brought racing to the foothills of Sierra Madre.

Now you can add to that list the name of the guy who used to deliver the beer.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Under normal circumstances, it would be quite a stretch to find a link between a maiden race on a quiet weekday at Santa Anita and the running of the meet's most important event 25 years ago.

In the fifth on Wednesday, however, take note of a horse named Joe Market, who is making his third start for trainer Lewis Cenicola and owner Marshall Boschetti, then do a quick English-to-Spanish translation. The result is Jose Mercado, the man known far and wide as the groom of two-time Horse of the Year John Henry.

PHOENIX - It was dry and barren and at least 15 miles from the nearest civilization, connected only by dirt roads and distant rumors. On paper, the idea of a first-class racetrack a long drive from anywhere was a little crazy, but that did not matter to Walter Cluer, a man whose successful millwork and manufacturing operations had made him one of the most respected businessmen in the burgeoning town of Phoenix, Arizona's capital city.